Book Review: 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home

Mark Nash is a successful broker associate with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. He specializes in Chicago residential real estate. He has authored multiple books including Real Estate A-Z for Buying & Selling a Home, Starting & Succeeding in Real Estate and Reaching Out: The Financial Power of Niche Marketing.

Nash has gained a reputation for helping agents excel in their practice, and consumers succeed in their home sale or search. He is also a columnist for Realty Times and frequent contributor to other real estate news publications. He is best known for his annual forecast, “What’s In, What’s Out with Homebuyers” published in Realty Times.

In 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home, Nash does a good job of compiling a plethora of realistic, approachable tips. His advice is chaptered according to the buyer’s or seller’s specific need, keeping far away from personal opinions about pricing or market trends. The book is designed to be a pragmatic tool, not an academic study.

Nash separates his book into three parts: buying, selling and moving. Cogently, he unveils static components of the real estate transaction, depicting how various characters work together to close escrow. Included are three checklists for specific purposes ranging from agent profiling to basic home inspection. Also included are website references to assist consumers with their inquiries. Other than minor variations, the book is predominantly text driven, devoid of charts or pictures.

The book offers a total 1,025 tips for buyers and sellers. Many tips are grouped together by theme, such as Tips 41-232 addressing construction issues. For example, Tip 116 states “Check to be sure that any basement with a poured concrete floor is equipped with floor drains as per building code.” Others are grouped by various legal matters, such as riparian or land rights. Beware though – these tips aren’t organized by any subheading, which makes it difficult to locate them without a highlighter or stack of sticky notes handy.

Some of these tips border on the obvious, such as Tip 34 “Learn the definition of mortgage.” Others explain common misunderstandings about the home sale process, such as Tip 826 “Understand why your real estate agent might not want you to be present when showing your home.”

Tips such as the latter feature points that flesh out what sellers should already understand, but provide the underlying reasoning to help inform their client. At times, this assistance is vague and suggests the reader do their own research.

Nash avoids geographically specific real estate matters. Unconcerned with projections and history, there is little discussion about real estate trends and nuanced licensee activity. So though authored in 2005, his tips are relevant in today’s discrepant market.

1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home is an excellent resource for first-time buyers and sellers to consult. Agents should keep these tips handy to pass on to clients. In conjunction with counseling, keep copies on hand to gift to daunted clients. People like gifts and those who give them.

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Featured Comment

Zestimates are great conversation starters with sellers and buyers. Zillow has done more for our bottom line than NAR ever has or will. Don’t fight the current of the river, learn to run with it. Disruption is inevitable in any industry that is fragmented or inefficient. Granted, it does feel like armchair experts and platforms are plentiful in real estate these days, but when the tide rolls out we will see the value proposition of the truest professionals in this industry shine once again.